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IF you are a fan of local schools’ sports, chances are you’ve been relying on the Zimbabwean news platform Schools Sports Network (SSN) to catch up on all the latest news on the local school sports scene. Thankfully SSN hasn’t been limiting its focus to just news before and after the game.

In addition to its existing live commentary feature, it has started live-streaming sports events via YouTube.

This follows the crowd funding campaign that SSN held sometime last year to gather resources that were used to acquire some of the equipment and software now being used for the live-streaming of sports in good quality.

This past weekend SSN shared a live-streaming link for a Schoolboy Rugby League match that saw Peterhouse taking on Falcon College in a First XV encounter.

This wasn’t the first match to be live-streamed by SSN. In addition to the other rugby matches that it has shared this season, SSN has also live-streamed matches for other sports like hockey and water polo.

The live-stream links are always shared on the SSN website which can also be accessed by anyone using the SSN IOS and Android app.

SSN managed to secure sponsorship for the live-stream from corporates such as Trek Petroleum and DHL Zimbabwe.

The live delivery of sports is a big deal and the introduction of schools’ sports to a wider audience through the Internet is a huge step for Zimbabwean schools. However, its growth is still influenced by Internet access for schools as well as viewers.

According to Chenje Katanda, the team leader at SSN, the streaming service has been offered on a school by school basis. Any institution hosting a sports match can have its main game streamed, as long as it has the necessary infrastructure such as a stable Internet connection.

So far the schools that have taken part rely on fibre connections for their Internet.

Although this type of internet isn’t necessarily the prerequisite to set up a live-streaming link, it shows how the need for strong Internet connection has limited this to mostly urban schools as well as some remotely located, but well-heeled institutions like Peterhouse and Falcon.

There is room for growth as the service expands to deliver a greater number of sports for a host of schools, but even after providers like SSN invest their own resources in covering these encounters, schools still need to have good Internet to be involved.

Limited Internet access also affects the number of people that watch the games.

Although it is still being delivered sporadically, the service has attracted a fair number of users with rugby, which has a significant following, generating over 1,000 views.

Our first impression was that this audience could be Zimbabweans based in the diaspora, but Katanda says a decent number of views have also been from within the country.

Katanda believes there is a huge appetite for live sports in Zimbabwe and although mobile Internet, which is the predominant Internet access, is still expensive, alternatives such as day bundles offered by all three mobile network operators have also given the ordinary fan access to the right amount of data for streaming.

Changes taking place in the live broadcast space are also going to have an impact on how SSN’s service gains traction.

While SSN has been relying on YouTube for streaming, the inclusion of live video services from platforms like Twitter and Facebook will have a huge impression on the way this service gains popularity locally.

Facebook is the second largest driver of bandwidth use locally and in cases where YouTube is sidelined for being expensive; an existing appetite for Facebook along with workarounds for the high Internet cost like Facebook bundles will open up live schools’ sports to an even wider audience. — TechZim